This holiday week, we're joined by author, agent, and corgi owner extraordinaire Eric Smith. We talk about balancing his writing life with agenting, how both roles inform each other, and most importantly, why his corgi sometimes receives book queries. He even gives the #pubtip for the week! Plus, some other stuff too.

This week, we’re thrilled to have an interview with New York Times bestselling author Shea Serrano. We ask him about his experience with the book-publishing process this time through, whether “experience” and “exposure” can pay bills for emerging writers or unpaid publishing interns (lol no), and of course, about his famous connection with his readers, the FOH Army. Separately, we also lead the show with a quick convo about TSA’s new policy of examining books in carry-on luggage.

What’s in a blurb? This week we talk about one of the more opaque processes in the book world: getting endorsements from other others. Who’s it for, and does it matter? Also, if Gary Shteyngart loves blurbing everything so much, why hasn’t he blurbed Print Run yet? We also debut a new weekly feature titled “Fiction Writer Under FBI Investigation, of the Week,” and no we’re not changing the clunky name, that’s the name of it. Oh, also: should publishers feel responsible for being green?

Summer Fridays: they’re fun, people love them, and they’re a well-established publishing tradition. But where do they come from, and why does publishing slow down in the summers? We get into the history of the summer Friday, and how it might tie into book culture far more than you might think. We also discuss author estates, in light of the new Harper Lee graphic novel, and apparently PRH bought a shirt company? Anyway, join us!

It’s safe to say that most people are feeling something strange in our current historical moment: disenchantment, paranoia, anxiety, or a whole host of other emotions. But current events aside, how do the strange traits of our age affect the way we read? Does this fraught era of information overload change how we consume books, and later on, will it change the books that someday get written during and about this period? We speculate on how this specific moment might affect all of our relationship with books, and how those books might change as a result.

After last week’s big, heavy episode, we’re more fun this week. We get into the “unwritten rules” of the book world, both real and imagined, both petty and substantial. We also do a quick check-in on Amazon Charts, per our chat last week, and spend a few minutes on Amazon’s physical stores (they’re good, unfortunately). Listener mailbag, as well!

It’s time. This week, we discuss by far the most influential entity in the book industry: Amazon. Bigger than everyone else, more ruthless than everyone else, and yet, completely indispensable to modern book culture. We go through Amazon’s history as it relates to publishing, highlighting its many innovations and its fights with publishers throughout the last decade, and try to get a handle on what Amazon could mean for books, publishing, and the written word.

This week, we discuss the levers of power that are at play in a book’s acquisition and publication, all of which end up determining that book’s fate and prospects. How does the size of a book’s advance payment affect how it’s published? What about author clout, or precedent, or expectation, or a pushy agent? It’s a chat about who ends up on the hook for what, and how all these factors come together (or don’t). We also do a quick BEA galley preview, in which we beg attendees to grab us books. Please … grab us the books.

This week’s show is on maybe the most fundamental thing any of us do outside the whole eating/sleeping thing: reading. How has the role of reading changed in our lives as we’ve gotten older? Is it the same experience reading as an adult as it is as a child or even a student? We unpack that, and also discuss the NYT slashing some of its bestseller lists, the new James Patterson/Bill Clinton collaboration, and books in your dating profiles.

This week we talk about the seemingly surface-level elements of books that seem to periodically rise and fall in popularity: things like the vampire in paranormal/YA books, or the cupcake shop in romance novels, or the word “Girl” in EVERY SINGLE LITERARY FICTION TITLE. Who’s driving these trends, and how and why do they change over time? Also included is a JP book of the week and a word on recent layoffs in the industry.